Dublin captain Aisling Maher reflects on 'whirlwind' skorts protest and vote

RTÉ News​

a day ago

Slowly at first, then all at once.
Seven weeks on from the initial skorts protest ahead of the Dublin and Kilkenny Leinster semi-final, and a month after the momentous vote to allow players to wear shorts, Dublin captain Aisling Maher reflects on a whirlwind few weeks where the players were finally heard.
Maher was one of the leading voices behind the calls for change and a big part of the initial protest that led to the Camogie Association putting together a rushed Special Congress as public outcry over the issue grew, and change became inevitable.
After a motion at the 2024 Camogie Congress to allow shorts was voted down, the issue appeared dead until 2027, but when Maher led out the Dublin players in shorts before changing into skorts after being told the game would not be played, she could not have known that was the spark that finally ignited change.
With the story becoming headline news both domestically and internationally, the Camogie Association were forced into calling a vote which passed unanimously.
Speaking ahead of a crucial All-Ireland Championship clash with Derry this weekend, Maher admitted that the initial protest was "a last-minute decision" that was born of frustration.
"It's a kind of a funny one to reflect on because in a way it's been going on forever as a camogie player, it's been going on forever," she said. "I can't tell you how many times and for how many years as players we've said, 'can we not get rid of them, we hate them and we don't want to wear them.'
"It's kind of been a background thing for a long time from a player's perspective.
"I guess in relation to the Leinster semi this year and the initial kind of protest that sparked everything, that was a quite a last-minute decision for most players. So that happened very quickly as a decision in itself.
"Then obviously the reaction off the back of it happened extremely quickly and probably grew to the extent that I don't think any of us anticipated.
"I guess as a result of how quickly it grew and of the impact that it had, there had to be fast action off it and there had to be fast change off the back of it.
"From a player's perspective, it was fantastic and brilliant because an ideal scenario for us at that point was that we were going into championship, not talking about it, and not thinking about it, and wearing stuff that we're comfortable in and that we want to wear.
"Ultimately that's the position we got to where the whole championship has been played with choice and with players having the ability to wear what they're comfortably comfortable wearing.
"So it's a great outcome from that perspective, I guess that we got to that point."
But while Maher and the Dubs were able to tog out in comfortable gear for the championship, the campaign on the pitch has not gone how she envisaged.
With three defeats from three games in the group phase, last week's reversal to Waterford ended their hopes of progressing to the quarter-finals. This weekend, Dublin welcome Derry to Parnell Park in a game where the loser will be consigned to a relegation play-off.
It's a far cry from last year where Dublin got the better of Kilkenny in the quarter-finals before eventually bowing out to Cork at the semi-final stage. Maher is clear that the campaign hasn't lived up to her hopes.
Looking ahead to the Derry game, she admitted that it's been difficult to lift the team after last week's defeat to Waterford.
She said: "It's always great to be playing what's effectively a knockout game, but it's knockout at the wrong end of the table, unfortunately for us. It's not the way we wanted to go into this game, we wanted to go into this game with a chance to get to the quarter-finals.
"That's not the case, but in some ways it makes it a more important game for us because we're leaving ourselves in a bad position if we can't get a win out of this one.
"It's not easy, I won't lie to you. It's challenging, you know, I'm part of the group that very firmly felt that we could and we should progress out of the group that we were in.
" We don't train at the level that we do, we don't work at the level that we do to finish middle of the table and not progress. We do it because we believe we're good enough to get to knockout stages and we're good enough to be in the last few.
"So when that doesn't happen and when you don't get the performances to back up those beliefs it's really difficult to pick yourself up and to go again and motivate yourself for more games when you know you can't progress.
"It's certainly not easy, but it definitely is more meaningful when it's still an important game and when it's a game that, that's gonna have a huge impact on our season and on where we finish."